Thought Leadership

Technology, Data & Travel Safety

For years, risk management companies have been sending alerts to organizations who send their travellers around the globe. You'll receive information via text, email, or through an app that will tell you of any political demonstrations, kidnappings, spates of gun crime or robbery; anything that they think is relevant for you going to that area.

Having been in this industry for many years, and having had the privilege of working with companies all around the globe who use Travel Safety alerts, we’ve got some real-time and live feedback from organisations on how they've found them.

Some say the alerts are too generic, and they're not relevant to the individual traveller. Some say there are too many alerts, and every minor incident is coming in the newsfeed in people's inboxes, and they end up not looking at them.

Some organizations have removed them altogether. Others have put them in as part of a bigger travel risk management programme, and have found them very useful.

Data, Insight, Action

At eTravelSafety, we believe in the methodology of Data to Insight to Action, which helps give us a better understanding of the importance of Travel Safety alerts. Most Travel Safety alerts are data. It's sending you data about an incident that has occurred, or about a demonstration or riot that’s being planned.

Some alerts might offer a little bit of insight, and perhaps even some action. But whatever those insights and actions are, they will be generic.

"Truly effective Travel Safety alerts need to be tailored to the individual traveller."

If a security professional is travelling and receives a Travel Safety alert, they will likely to be able to take the data they receive, apply some insight to it, and turn that insight into appropriate action. It would be routine for them, something they’ve done so many times it is now automatic.

That would not be the case for a 24-year-old media consultant who hasn’t travelled before, or even a 50-year-old going to the same location.

Even when setting aside factors like age or sex or travel experience, every travel experience will be different, so the alerts, as generic as they are, will mean different things for each individual traveller.

So What's The Solution?

Prior to travel, every traveller should understand the risks they face. Normally this is done through a travel risk assessment, allowing the traveller to see what specific risks they are likely to face, factoring in that different travellers will experience a different level of risk.

This should be a live feed, and constantly updated so that the traveller knows how their risk is changing, evolving, or adjusting, depending on what incidents are happening in that location.

With this tailored travel risk assessment in place, you can offer tailored Travel Safety alerts that give data, insight and most importantly, targeted, specific action for your travellers to help them stay safe.